India okays $984 million of foreign investment plans: Govt

The government said on Tuesday it approved 17 foreign direct investment proposals worth Rs45.51 billion ($984 million), but rejected a tie-up between Europe's EADS and India's top engineering firm Larsen & Toubro.

The statement issued by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the nodal agency that clears foreign investment proposals, gave no reason for the rejection to set up a manufacturing joint venture for defence equipment by the firms.

The government approved plans by the local telecoms arm of Russia's Sistema to receive Rs30.51 billion as foreign investment, the statement said.

The agency has sought the cabinet committee approval for Alstrom's proposal to set up a joint-venture company with a foreign investment of Rs4.9 billion, as the project cost exceeded a regulatory limit of Rs6 billion.

Pepsico Inc's plans to infuse Rs9.28 billion of foreign equity to its India arm was also referred to the cabinet committee, the statement added.